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Child's Play (1988 film)
| story = Don Mancini | starring = | music = Joe Renzetti | cinematography = Bill Butler | editing = | studio = United Artists | distributor = MGM/UA Communications Co. | released = | runtime = 87 minutes | country = United States | budget = $9 million | gross = $44.2 million | language = English }}Child's Play is a 1988 American slasher film directed and co-written by Tom Holland, and produced by David Kirschner from a story by Don Mancini. It is the first film in the Child's Play series and the first installment to feature the character Chucky. It stars Catherine Hicks, Dinah Manoff, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, and Brad Dourif. Hicks plays a widowed mother who gives her son a doll for his birthday, unaware that the doll is possessed by the soul of an infamous serial killer. The film was released on November 9, 1988, and grossed more than $44 million against a production budget of $9 million. Along with the film gaining a cult following, the box office success spawned a series of six sequels, along with merchandise and comic books. Child's Play was the only film in the series to be distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, as the rights to the series were sold to Universal Pictures in 1990, right before production on Child's Play 2 started. Plot On the night of November 9, 1988, serial killer and fugitive Charles Lee Ray is chased by homicide detective Mike Norris through the streets of South Side, Chicago after a failed robbery attempt. Mike shoots Charles several times, but he still manages to make it to his getaway vehicle. However, Charles is left behind after his accomplice, Eddie Caputo, gets scared and drives away without him. Charles runs into a toy shop, where he is fatally shot by Mike. Realizing that he is dying, Charles transfers his soul into a "Good Guys" doll, using a Haitian Vodou spell. A bolt of lightning causes the shop to explode. Mike survives the explosion and enters the shop, only to find Charles' dead body and all the "Good Guys" dolls on the floor. The next day, widow Karen Barclay unknowingly purchases the doll Charles transferred his soul into (now known as Chucky) from a peddler, as a birthday gift for her six-year-old son Andy Barclay. Later that evening, Karen's friend Maggie Peterson babysits Andy. She turns the TV off and tells Andy to go to bed, but she quickly finds Chucky sitting back in the living room with the television on. Andy insists he did not touch the television or put Chucky in the living room, but Maggie does not believe him. After tucking Andy and Chucky into bed, Maggie is hit in the face with a hammer by an unseen assailant and falls out the window to her death. The police search the apartment and Detective Norris deems Andy a suspect. Karen orders Mike and the police to leave once they complete their investigation. Before going to bed, Andy says that Chucky has been talking to him and said that Maggie got what she deserved. Karen is upset and tells Andy to stop lying. The next morning, Chucky orders Andy to skip school and take the Chicago "L" downtown. While Andy is distracted, Chucky sneaks into Eddie's lair, turning off a stove's pilot light but turning up the gas. Eddie becomes paranoid at the noises in his apartment and shoots the stove, causing the house to blow up. Andy, once again a suspect, is taken from Karen and placed in a psychiatric hospital. That night, Karen goes home with the Chucky doll. Karen takes the Good Guy box Chucky came in and a pack of batteries fall out. She realizes Chucky has been functioning without batteries. Karen picks Chucky back and demands that he speaks to her. She then turns on the fire set and threatens to throw him in. Chucky springs to life and starts attacking Karen, even biting her arm. Chucky escapes from the apartment while Karen runs after him, but she is too late to catch him. Karen finds Mike at the station and alerts Mike about the fact that Andy really was telling the truth and shows him the bite mark that Chucky made. Mike does not believe her and leaves. As Mike drives home, Chucky appears in the backside and tries to strangle Mike using a cord but Mike burns Chucky’s cheek with a cigarette lighter plug. Mike, struggling to drive with Chucky trying to kill him, accidentally hits a dumpster, flipping the car upside down. Chucky escapes the vehicle and Mike shoots Chucky in the side of the chest, but he escapes. After that, Mike finally believes Karen and decides to help her. Chucky is shocked that the bullet hurt him so he goes to John Bishop who taught him the chant which Chucky used the chant for evil. John tells Chucky that the longer he stays in the doll, the more human he will become. Ignoring Chucky's pleas for help, John attempts to make a call but Chucky tortures John, breaking John's leg and arm with a voodoo doll of him and John finally tells him that he has to transfer his soul to the first person he revealed his true identity to, which is Andy. Chucky stabs the voodoo doll in the chest, wounding John, and goes off to find Andy. Karen and Mike enter John’s apartment and discover the scene. Before John succumbs to his injuries from Chucky, John tells them that although Chucky is a doll, he has a heart as well and his heart is fully human and vulnerable to fatal injury. At the psychiatric hospital, Chucky steals the key to Andy's cell, but Andy is able to trick Chucky and escape his cell. Dr. Ardmore finds Andy in the surgery room and attempts to subdue him, but is killed by Chucky. Andy runs home, but is followed by Chucky, who knocks him unconscious. Chucky prepares to possess Andy by beginning the chant but Karen and Mike arrive and stop him before Chucky's soul is successfully transferred. Chucky tries to bite Karen again but Mike throws Chucky against the wall. Chucky slashes Mike’s leg with a knife and runs away, forcing Mike to chase him. Chucky reappears and hits Mike with a baseball bat, but Karen shoots Chucky in the knee. Karen attempts to fire again, only to discover that the gun is jammed, allowing Chucky to attack her in the living room. Karen traps Chucky in the fireplace and Andy drops a lit match in it, burning Chucky alive. Karen and Andy leave the room to help Mike, but a heavily burned Chucky follows them and attempts to kill them. Karen shoots off his head, arm, and leg and tries shooting him to death. Chucky is again presumed to be killed when he stops moving. Mike's partner Jack Santos arrives at the apartment. However, Jack disbelieves the trio's story until Chucky's body bursts through the vent duct next to Jack and tries to strangle him with his remaining hand. During the struggle, Karen tells Mike to aim and shoot at Chucky's heart, like John said. Mike does so and finally kills Chucky. Mike is taken outside by Karen and Jack, while Andy stays behind and stares at Chucky's burnt corpse before Karen returns for him, shutting the lights off and closing the door. Cast played Detective Mike Norris.]] * Brad Dourif as Charles Lee Ray/Chucky, a well known voodoo serial killer who transfers his soul into a "Good Guys" doll in order to cheat death after being killed by Mike Norris. ** Brock Winkless performed the puppetry for Chucky * Alex Vincent as Andy Barclay, a 6-year-old boy who is framed for Chucky's crimes. * Catherine Hicks as Karen Barclay, Andy's mother. * Chris Sarandon as Detective Mike Norris, a senior homicide police detective and Chucky's arch-enemy. * Dinah Manoff as Maggie Peterson, Karen's friend and Andy's babysitter. * Tommy Swerdlow as Jack Santos, Norris's partner. * Jack Colvin as Dr. Lawrence Ardmore, the head doctor of a mental hospital. * Raymond Oliver as John "Dr. Death" Bishop, Chucky's former voodoo mentor. * Neil Giuntoli as Eddie Caputo, Chucky's old accomplice. * Alan Wilder as Mr. Walter Criswell, Karen and Maggie's boss. * Aaron Osborne as the Orderly * Juan Ramirez as the Peddler Production Child's Play was filmed in Chicago, Illinois for on-location scenes. The Chicago landmark the Brewster Apartments, located at Diversey and Pine Grove, served as the location of the apartment where Andy and Karen lived and is pictured on the film's poster. In-studio filming took place at Culver Studios in Culver City, California. David Kirschner produced all six films in the Chucky series. During an airing of the movie on the morning of January 7, 2007, AMC claimed the creator modeled the doll after the Cabbage Patch Kids. This was confirmed by an interview with the creator, Don Mancini, which was featured on the Seed of Chucky DVD. Holland, on the other hand, affirms that My Buddy dolls played a role in Chucky's design. Don Mancini stated his original script was a whodunit story which dealt with the effect of advertising/television on children. Mancini's original script was written to toy with the audience a bit longer, making them wonder whether young Andy was the killer rather than Chucky. Chucky's full name, Charles Lee Ray, is derived from the names of notorious killers Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray. Maggie's death was originally going to be by electrocution while taking a bath. The idea was abandoned, and was later used for Tiffany's death in Bride of Chucky. The film used various ways to portray Chucky, including RC animatronics and little people or child actors. Various animatronics and cosmetics were used for every scene. Throughout the movie, Chucky's cosmetics transition from looking toy-like to a more human look. The film created multiple Chucky animatronics such as a flailing tantrum Chucky, a walking Chucky, and a stationary Chucky. The animatronic's face was controlled via remote control through a rig that goes on one's face and captures facial movement. Release Child's Play was produced on a budget of $9,000,000. The film was released on November 9, 1988, in 1,377 theaters, opening at #1, out of the other 12 films that were showing that week, with $6,583,963. The film went on to gross $33,244,684 at the US box office and an additional $10,952,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $44,196,684. Home media Child's Play was originally released on VHS in North America by MGM/UA Home Video on April 25, 1989. The film was first released on DVD by MGM in 1999. The film was presented in an open-matte full screen presentation and included a theatrical trailer and a "Making Of" booklet. The Australian DVD release by MGM featured the film in non-anamorphic widescreen transfer. The DVD was re-released in 2007 with a lenticular cover. A 20th Anniversary DVD was released by MGM and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on September 9, 2008.Child's Play (Anniversary Edition) on DVD DVDtown.com The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 Widescreen format (for the first time in the U.S. in 20 years) enhanced for 16x9 monitors and includes an English 5.1 surround track and English, French, and Spanish 2.0 stereo tracks. Special features include two audio commentaries with Alex Vincent, Catherine Hicks, Kevin Yagher, producer David Kirschner and screenwriter Don Mancini, a "Selected Scene Chucky Commentary", "Evil Comes in Small Packages" featurettes, a vintage featurette from 1988 titled "Introducing Chucky: The Making of Child's Play", and "Chucky: Building a Nightmare" featurette, theatrical trailer and a photo gallery. The film received a Blu-ray Disc release on September 15, 2009. The DVD does not feature any contributions from director Tom Holland, who claims he was not asked to contribute to it. In response, the website Icons of Fright contacted Holland and asked if he would be willing to record a commentary track that would be free for download on their website. He agreed, and the track is downloadable from here. On October 8, 2013, the film was re-released again on DVD and Blu-ray in a boxset for the respective formats, containing all 6 Child's Play films. On October 18, 2016, Scream Factory and MGM re-released the film in a brand new Collector's Edition Blu-ray. On October 3, 2017, the film was re-released once again on DVD and Blu-ray in a boxset for the respective formats, containing all 7 Child's Play films. Reception Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 67% of 36 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.4/10. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, calling it a "cheerfully energetic horror film".[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19881109/REVIEWS/811090301 Child's Play review] Ebert, Roger Author and film critic Leonard Maltin gave the film three out of a possible four stars, calling it "a scary and clever horror thriller", also praising the film's special effects. Awards Controversy During the initial release, a large crowd of protesters formed at the main entrance of MGM calling for a ban on the film because, they claimed, it would incite violence in children. Local news reporters from two TV stations were broadcasting live from the scene. The producer, David Kirschner, was watching the demonstration on TV and was disturbed. Jeffrey Hilton, who had been working in Kirschner's office at MGM, indicated that he could quell the disturbance in 10 minutes. While Kirschner was watching from the safety of his office, Hilton spoke to the group's leader and shook his hand. The group instantly dispersed, much to the chagrin of the newscasters. Hilton did not reveal to Kirschner whether it had been a threat or simple diplomacy that saved the day. Hilton's diplomacy notwithstanding, the film series was plagued with accusations of inciting violence in children. Child's Play 3 was cited as the "inspiration" for two murders, which took place in the United Kingdom in December 1992 and February 1993 respectively: the murder of Suzanne Capper and murder of James Bulger. In the Suzanne Capper case, the 16-year-old was forced to listen to recordings of the gangleader repeating the catchphrase "I'm Chucky, wanna play?"January 28, 1996 Sex with 'Chucky' killer Sunday Mirror''18 December 1993 Horror fiction became reality ''The IndependentComputers, curriculum, and cultural change: an introduction for teachers By Eugène F. Provenzo, Arlene Brett, Gary N. McCloskey. Published 1999 Tom Holland, in response to both murders, defended the film, stating that viewers of horror movies could only be influenced by their content if they were "unbalanced to begin with."December 19, 1993 Chucky films defended The Independent Sequels The film was followed by Child's Play 2 in 1990, Child's Play 3 in 1991, Bride of Chucky in 1998, Seed of Chucky in 2004, Curse of Chucky in 2013 and Cult of Chucky in 2017 and while creator Don Mancini is developing a TV series titled Child’s Play: The TV Series as well as several sequels to the original series a reboot of the film is in production for a release in 2019. See also *List of American films of 1988 *"Living Doll", a 1963 episode of ''The Twilight Zone'' about a murderous talking doll *"Dolls", a 1987 Italian-American horror movie about killer dolls. *"Trilogy of Terror", a 1975 anthology film featuring a story about a living Zuni fetish doll References External links * * * * Category:1988 films Category:1988 horror films Category:1980s slasher films Category:American films Category:American independent films Category:American mystery films Category:American slasher films Category:American supernatural horror films Category:English-language films Category:Child's Play (film series) Category:Fictional portrayals of the Chicago Police Department Category:Films about children Category:Films about dolls Category:Witchcraft in film and television Category:Films set in the 1980s Category:Films set in Chicago Category:Films shot in Chicago Category:Innovation Publishing titles Category:United Artists films Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Category:Films directed by Tom Holland